McGraw–Hill Building
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McGraw-Hill Building is the name of two distinct high-rise buildings in midtown Manhattan, New York City.
330 West 42nd Street
The original McGraw-Hill building on 42nd Street (33 stories, 485 ft / 148 m) was completed in 1931, the same year as the completion of the Empire State Building. The architect was Raymond Hood. The exterior walls of the building are panels of blue-green terra-cotta ceramic tiles, alternating with green-metal-framed windows, with a strongly horizontal orientation. The building was the only New York building shown in the influential International Style exhibition in 1932, and it's also been cited as a landmark of Art Deco design.
Located on West 42nd Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, one of the two blocks that also houses the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the McGraw-Hill Building had been the tallest building in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood for decades. It lost that status with the building of One Worldwide Plaza. It is still visible from a distance, but is dwarfed by the newly constructed Orion Building on the same block, a 58-story tall residential complex, also with a green exterior.
1221 Avenue of the Americas
The taller McGraw-Hill Building is one of the three buildings collectively known as the "XYZ Buildings". The XYZ Buildings were part of the Rockefeller Center complex expansion in the 1960's. They consists of three buildings with similar slab-like massing, of different heights, all three designed by Wallace Harrison's firm. Though all three buildings are on Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas), each occupies its own city block.
The McGraw-Hill Building, the first one completed (1969) and the second in height (674 ft and 51 stories), is the "Y" Building at 1221 Avenue of the Americas. The "X" Building, 1251 Avenue of the Americas (the Exxon Building), is the tallest (750 ft (229 m) and 54 stories) and the second one completed (1971). The "Z" Building, the shortest and the youngest, is the Celanese Building with 45 stories (592 ft / 180 m), and is now the high-profile headquarters to News Corporation.
The buildings are similar in design and look to the former Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre Complex in the Financial District.
The buildings are featured in the opening credits of Saturday Night Live, seen from below looking up in the street from a car.